Windows hanging at loading

I'm actually not sure if this is a malware problem but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. The computer was running fine yesterday and as far as I know the only change that occurred yesterday was installing AIM but now it refuses to load windows in normal mode. I can start it up fine in safe mode, I can start it up in safe mode w/ networking, and so on but I can't get windows to boot normally.

I am currently working through the malware removal steps on a different computer on the same network to remove a virus that looks like an anti virus program called "Security Suite Demo". I started using the same scans on the PC in question just in case it was infected with the same virus but I've had no hits on the one and tons of hits on the infected one.

Software problems I can deal with and I know what to look for well enough to figure out if it's a virus but if it is a virus it hasn't identified itself at all and I can't think of a hardware issue that would cause a computer to not boot windows normally but still let you boot into safe mode.

If you think it would help I'll finish the malware removal process and get all the normal logs but I just wanted to get an opinion on it before I waste an afternoon doing that.

 

Well, I'm going to reinstall XP just in case that fixes the issue. I can't think of anything that would cause windows to act so strangely except windows.

 

I've done a bunch of scans and come up empty so far. AVG, Spybot, I went through everything in the removal guide up to Combofix and found nothing but I was a little wary of running combofix and rootrepeal without some kind of indication that it was necessary.

 

SAS and MBAM turned up nothing, I'll get on MGtools right now.